


This is Gospel

by Goodluckdetective (scorpiontales), Hinn_Raven



Series: Bitter Pill [9]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Angst, Blindness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 20:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6254080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpiontales/pseuds/Goodluckdetective, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/pseuds/Hinn_Raven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the war, Tucker goes missing. Ten years later, he shows back up again. Chorus is on it’s last leg. His friends are either dead, captured or scattered. And Tucker is still Tucker.<br/>This installment:<br/>Wash is blind, but he’s no fool.<br/>The man in front of him cannot be Lavernius Tucker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Gospel

The man standing in front of him couldn’t be Tucker.

Wash knew this, knew it well, knew it in his very bones. In the world they lived in, the world they survived in these days, Tucker couldn’t be alive, couldn’t have taken a breath a day past the moment Hargrove touched down on Chorus and blew half the population away. No matter what the others told him, the man in front of him couldn’t be Tucker. It had to be someone else.

Still that voice. Voice replicators were good, Wash knew that, but for him to perfectly replicate how Tucker used to say his name-

Well, he didn’t try to linger on it.

“I might be blind but I’m not a fool,” Wash said, holding his knife towards the man in front of him. He hadn’t moved since he entered, a wise move, since Wash would have noticed sight or no sight. “Lavernius Tucker is dead. Now get lost or lose your vocal cords. Your choice.”

“Wash-” There is was again. Wash gritted his teeth, trying to block out the noise, the emotion it carried. “Dude, what happened-”

“I said your choice.” The thing in front of him didn’t move but it didn’t keep talking either, so he continued. “I don’t know how you managed to fool the others, but you’re not getting past me. So go tell Hargrove nice try or I’ll send him your corpse as a message instead.”

There was a long beat of silence. Then, the man in front of him spoke.

“Holy shit dude, that’s dark.”

That wasn’t what Wash was expecting. He was braced for either an all out fight or the man to book it, not to comment on his words. “Excuse me?”

“That’s dark. And like in a cheesy emo dramatic way, not a _“I’m going to piss myself out of fear”_ way.” Wash heard a deep breath. “You’re telling me you’ve been playing lone cowboy for years and have been using lines like that? How does anyone take you seriously?”

Now that tone brought back memories. Memories of him sitting next to Tucker in the middle of nowhere, talking shit while waiting for the Reds to try to start something. It’s one of the few memories that didn’t hurt outright for Wash to think about these days.

Nothing in this world got better than bittersweet.

“Look man, I know this isn’t going to convince you but I’m Tucker. Lavernius Tucker. The one and only. And I’m not dead.”

That brought back reality. Wash didn’t lower his knife. “ _Right.”_

“No, I’m serious! One minute I was fighting orange Satan, the next I’m lying in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and everything is on fire. Or dead. Or both.” A longer pause. “You’re not convinced, are you?”

Wash was not.

“Will getting someone else to verify it prove it to you?”

It might, Wash thought, but that would mean going back to base and going back to base would mean interacting with people he’d only let down over the years. Wash shook his head.

“Not even me?”

Wash froze then cursed. He knew that voice. Carolina. She must have walked in when he was distracted by hearing Tucker’s voice again after all these years.

Careless.

“It’s him, Wash,” Carolina said, and Wash didn’t miss the waver in his voice. “Really. We did the blood work and everything, every last test we could think of. His story checks out.”

Wash shook his head. This had to be a ploy. A gamble to get him to come back where Carolina could keep him from fighting back, from doing what he needed to do. “This isn’t funny, Carolina.”

“No, it isn’t. Which is why I’m telling the truth.” Wash heard her take a step forward and he took a step back. “Wash. _Please._ It’s him.”

Wash felt a tightness in his chest. There was no way. Tucker was dead. He’d been for years. Felix had killed him, killed him like a dog, and that was why Wash couldn’t stop, that’s why he could never stop because Tucker had died and _Wash wasn’t there_. A hand, Carolina’s he knew how big her hand was tried to wrap around his wrist and he pulled his arm away.

“Prove it.” It seemed like the right thing to say. The only thing he could think of saying. Another hand reached around his wrist, but this time it wasn’t Carolina’s. The hand was too big. Calloused. A sword hand.

“Look, I don’t know if this is accurate, but they did it on tv once so-” And then his hand was on a face.

Wash had done this a few times, once he’d lost his sight for good. It seemed like an important skill to learn, and it helped him remember what faces looked like once they started to fade in his memory. Even without touching some of them, Wash was sure if Caboose appeared in front of him alive, right now, Wash would be able to identify him by the chubby nose that always made his face look boyish.

The man in front of him did not have a chubby nose. He had a strong jaw. A big mouth. Large ears. A wide brow. Eyes that crinkled when he felt out of his depth and-

“ _Tucker_?”

There went that crinkle, right there, under Wash’s thumb. “Believe me now?”

Wash was glad he couldn’t see the expression on Tucker’s face when he started to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the “Bitter Pill” verse with my lovely co fic war mods. Fun times. Entirely based of SAINW from TMNT 2003 but you need no background there to enjoy this.
> 
> This story has now been jossed by our main installment, but feel free to enjoy it on it's own.


End file.
